In this week's feature, we will discuss a veranda. The apartment where our featured veranda lies is located in the old Airport, behind the Drum factory. It's a very old house and has a spacious surrounding veranda. The beautiful lake view is really enjoyable from that corner.

The veranda in particular, being L -shaped, and having a sleek walkway, promised to be an excellent sitting space. The owner of this house arranged for a small fountain at the corner of the veranda. A decorative basket that holds everything you will need for relaxing until the sun goes down rounded up the entire layout. 

This is the time of the year when rain is a constant occurrence, dropping in on us at any time without warning. This makes it the perfect time to maintain one's terrace, veranda garden or any seating area with natural plants to keep it eco-friendly. The way to ease the stresses of life, with its petty annoyances and frustrations, is to concen¬trate on redirecting the flow of energy—chi—through your home. Sense the emotional tenor of each room and of each occupant.

Insulate your home against noise and distractions. All too often, whatever disrupts our inner peace is not weighty world events but life's petty annoyances. The ringing of a cell phone or booming music from the house next door intrudes into our private space. A missing pay check, a tardy employee, traffic and countless other delays and inconveniences try our patience.

It is especially important to make sure that your home's environment is nurturing and life affirming. You can easily decorate your living area and veranda abundantly with living plants in hand crafted pottery. A ceiling-high Ficus tree and hanging fern will bring their own quiet energy into your space.

While they feed the spirit, plants also benefit your physical health. Some researchers believe that certain varieties of ordinary foliage help cleanse the air. Fresh cut flowers will also bring a spirit of renewal provided that the water in which they are kept is changed. Feng Shui and common sense suggest that you replace fading flowers with fresh blooms.

Wilting plants will sap energy from the room, so bring in branches of dolonchapa or rojonigondha with their sweetened smell and watch them blossom. Float fragrant lotus blossoms in a crystal or brass bowl, and tuck bud vases in the corners of your home. 

You can use warm earthy colours such as brown, green, gold and deep russet for upholstery and shimmering silks for cushions this season. Use small table lamps with warm incandescent bulbs to define areas with cosy pools of light. Carpets can also be very effective in establishing the sense of a room.

An aromatic home is a tradition long due for revival. The aro¬mas we encounter when entering someone else's home are often subtle and pervasive. They can tell us a great deal about the house and its occupants. Houses where there are chil¬dren, animals or smokers, all have very distinct smells. Happy homes have different smells from unhappy ones.

Not only does scent affect you emotionally but also phys¬iologically due to the messages that specific odour molecules carry to the brain. People have been quick to use this effect of aroma to their advantage. Some estate agents use the smell of coffee brewing or bread baking to help sell properties, as they know full well how these homely aromas make us feel a particular house is attractive and full of good vibrations. The vibrations we receive through our senses of sight, hear-ing and smell are so closely linked so we often associate sounds with certain colours, while colours invoke particular scents.

By Nazneen Haque Mimi
Interior Consultant, JOURNEYMAN
E-mail: journeyman.interiors@gmail.com
Photo for pg-16 &17: Sharear Kabir Heemel
Special Thanks: Mrs S. A Khan